How do we take ‘it’ to the outside world?

Devoted and Disgruntled Archivist

Convener(s): Nick Sweeting

Participants: many participants of the Open Space

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:

SUMMARY:

1/ hold another open space in 6 months with the people who were here and possibly the influential people that we would have liked to discuss with2/ form a delegation of the most influential people who were here3/ every participant to write and speak to the people who were spoken about 4/ get press coverage5/ every participant to take action on what they said during the sessions they would do6/ put a forum online to pursue the discussion on the ideas that were addressed this weekend7/ do a summary of the common document8/ 100 participants to march to bring the summarized document to a meeting (where there would be our delegation meeting people in charge in the society)

WHOLE DISCUSSION:

Rephrasing the title would be: ⇒ How to communicate ‘it’ to the people who ‘should’ have been here?

It is a possibility to organize a delegation to speak to the – say - 50 main leaders. This could be hosted at the South Bank Center.

This weekend is just a first step.

Every participant could send an individual letter to various influential people to show the multiplicity of the people here.

We should communicate positively to these people ‘outside’ and tell them: ‘we need you to be a part of it’.

To make changes happen in policy, it has to do with the government and we need a delegation to formulate our demands and to lobby for us.

We should find new ways to communicate – and not do it like it was in the past.

We should do a new Open Space event in about 6 months and make sure that these people – influential and who did not come - are coming.

It is our responsibility to spread around ourselves the ideas discussed in this forum.

It is not about telling the people that they have to change, it is our responsibility to change things.

If we are to hold a new event with many more people involved, there could be a danger of becoming confusing.

What we should do is:1/ host another event2/ get a delegation3/ take individual responsibility for spreading the word.4/ get a good coverage (press…)

A Guardian journalist who is present and who wants to write about the event says that it is difficult at this stage to summarize the whole event in a short article yet. We need to re-work on the content to make it sharper.

Democracy was at the heart of this weekend’s event and it should and it will continue to be so.

Should we do a manifesto?

Clarity will come out as the participants will read the whole document.

If we hold another event, there is a risk of discussing the same things again and to see no action to be taken. We should find out what has been done/said this weekend.

Participants will choose now 5 or 10 issues that are the most urgent to them. That will help making priorities.

This event has an intriguing quality for the people who were not there. Thanks to it, there will be twice the number of people next time.

We could set up for each of us the task to tell 5 people to come next time.

We could do a two-part document:- part 1: the environment: for example, the lack of culture of the new in this country…- part 2: the details:we would like this and that…

It is not about Improbable, but about this whole new group communicating with the ‘outside’.

We should choose what we want to change and speak to the right people to make it happen; and carefully choose how to communicate to these right people.

We can find in the big document the simple practical things that we can do and self-organize ourselves.

By grouping and talking to each other, we can help changing things.For example – says the Guardian journalist – the critics that do not like the kind of theatre you want to see will not be in place forever. If we speak to each other, we will grow the community all together along the years.

One suggested in another group that we should march when delivering our master document to the outside.

We should make sure that communicating what we discussed is an event.

Many ideas have been said over the weekend and distillation has to happen.

Kirsty and Phelim will put into place a website with a forum divided into all the issues that have been discussed so that the people can continue the discussion and possibly take action.

Editing will be needed to make the document readable.

We had a great time together, but there is a risk to loose the open spirit of this weekend if we put too much structure. We should be careful to keep that good spirit.

Let’s find ‘theatrical’ ways to communicate (vs. written document) because we will enjoy ourselves and better communicate our message.

How we keep in touch

As well as contacting you about administrative issues connected to your report submissions, donations or event bookings, we would love your consent to tell you about upcoming Devoted & Disgruntled events, and Improbable news and productions. We won't share your details with third parties. For more information, please see our Privacy Policy.

We will normally only ever contact you via email. However, if you prefer to be contacted in another way, please select channels below.

If you'd rather we didn't contact you at all, please leave all channel options blank.

Your Privacy

We store all your personal details securely. We'll use your data to communicate with you in the ways you have specified, and may use data for analysis to make sure we're providing the best service possible. for more information, please see our Privacy Policy.

Latest

We live now in information - it is our environment. An aspect of what we can do in response to current events is the information we have about what's actually going on. Perhaps if we can clean up the information environment we will make better decisions about what to do next.

"How do we improve female working class visiblility in the arts?" was the question posed at the start of day.
As a female arts sector leader (Festival Director - therefore a programmer, fundraiser, commissioner, debater, network lead/contributor, ambassador, etc), I felt it was important to ask what people wanted or needed from me, as someone who has a voice -in certain spaces- to offer. I was trying to buck the assumption that I would already know what women wanted from their peers and lead

This Open Space covered a wide range of subjects including gender, ethnicity, stage allies, pre- and post-show ally-ship, awareness, play and best practice.
It was convened by Stephen Davidson (Author: Play Like An Ally and Improvising Gender; Artistic Director: Improvable; Nursery Theatre: Training Centre Manager), Minder Kaur Athwal (Facilitator), Victoria Hogg (Founder: DDG Improv and The Offer Bank).
NB. These notes are not perfect! They were taken long-hand in the moment and are a startin

Why was there an absence of younger improv troups & artists?
What generation is GII tailored for? Does time & experience equate to best practice?
How can we make this an intergenerational space and open up the 'inner circle'?
Will that create better opportunities for both emerging artists and established improvisers?

A discussion about how to create a genuinely safe and open atmosphere in improv classes from the first class someone takes.
How do we protect students from potentially harmful experiences which can arise from the rigidity or literal interpretation of 'Yes, and' ?

These are notes taken as Guy Hartnell shared about the Oogly Boogly project, where performers improvised with babies by copying their movements and sounds, while the babies' parents watched. It took place inside a large inflatable venue. The notes were taken by Catherine Ryan.

Sign up for our newsletter

Type in your email address here:

By signing up to our newsletter, you are giving your consent for us to contact you via email with news of Devoted & Disgruntled events and other projects run by Improbable. For more details on how we hold your data and how we are complying with GDPR, please see the Privacy Policy.